Suffrage and the Women Behind It Photo Gallery and related media

Suffrage and the Women Behind It

Susan B. Anthony in December 1898

Perhaps the most well-known women's rights activist in American history, Susan B. Anthony was born in 1820 and raised as a Quaker. She dedicated her life to numerous causes, including universal suffrage, women's property rights, the abolition of slavery and temperance.

Related Speeches & Audio (10)

"...and then Dr. King gave this speech. He climaxed talking about how he had been to the mountaintop. What I remember the most about the speech was how ministers, who ordinarily will exclaim joy and support a minister who is speaking. But how ministers cried. It was that kind of speech..."

Born April 15, 1889, A. Philip Randolph was instrumental in leading the civil rights movement in America. In one of many speeches on racial justice, Randolph ponders the question of how to right past wrongs.

A report from Charleston, South Carolina, describes heavy voter turnout at the state's primary election on August 10, 1948. For the first time since the Reconstruction era, African-Americans were permitted to vote in a Democratic primary, after a federal judge ruled their exclusion unconstitutional.

On February 27, 1973, 200 American Indian Movement (AIM) leaders and supporters occupied the South Dakota reservation town of Wounded Knee, site of the infamous massacre of 300 Sioux by the U.S. Seventh Cavalry in 1890. Reporters on the scene relay information about the takeover.

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. A commentary on the ruling explores the differing theories on integration at the time.

On April 29, 1992, shortly after four white LAPD officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King, rioting broke out in Los Angeles. On May 1, President George H. W. Bush delivers a nationally broadcast response to the unrest, which lasted more than a week.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower is forced to take action when nine African-American students are prevented from entering Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In a broadcast to the nation on September 24, 1957, the president explains his decision to order Federal troops to Little Rock to ensure that the students are allowed access to the school, as mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.